Monthly Archives: July 2008

5 Reasons Why You Need Article Marketing

Content, Marketing,

31 July  2008, by A. Cedilla

Whether you run an online business or you supplement one in brick-and-mortar with a website, you need to use article marketing. If you aren’t promoting your business with articles, you’re ignoring a powerful, wide-reaching avenue to market your product. Here’s why:

It’s free. If you’ve done your homework you would’ve learned that advertising doesn’t come cheap. Running an ad in the newspapers or magazines can take a big chunk out of your business budget. By spending just a little more time writing and posting several articles each month, you’ll save quite a lot on more conventional advertising. And, article marketing won’t cost you anything but a few hours a week. Continue reading 5 Reasons Why You Need Article Marketing →

Tailoring for Performance

Best Business Practices, ,

26 July 2008, by A. Cedilla

Quick, what kind of suit does James Bond wear?

In his last flick Bond wears Brioni. Presidents and world-shakers, as well as cinematic spooks, wear Brioni , exquisitely tailored to fit the wearer. What you might call bespoke.

But that’s just an example. We”re not talking about suits today, but of tailoring. Tailoring means cutting, forming and shaping something to fit a specific form or figure as accurately as possible.

Tailor your life as much as you can so it fits you. You have to understand this, down to your bones: It’s your life. Your life.

Things are so unpredictable now. Everyone’s on edge, waiting to see where the axe will fall next, or when the next global crisis will rear up and bite us all on our collective ass. People are tired of stressing out over what tomorrow will come up with.

It behooves us not only to find our comfort where and when we can, but to MAKE it as well.

You can do this in many of ways. Some aren’t helpful in the long run: comfort eating, drinking too much, etc. Mostly actions like these are just ways to cover what’s eating you. Over-control, on the other hand, places you as the center of the universe, a frustrated, petty godling who should be able to do this, dammit, never mind the headaches or the hypertension.

How? Continue reading Tailoring for Performance →

Disaster Recovery and Your Business

Best Business Practices,

25 July 2008, by A. Cedilla

Nobody really likes to think about, much less talk about, the possibility of disaster, but if you look back on the local and global events that have occurred in the first half of this year alone, you’ve probably wondered, “Why didn’t anyone see this coming?” and ” What do I do now?”

Thankfully, you may not have been broadsided by floods, fires or earthquakes, but a random electric surge, a leaky pipe or a particularly aggressive burglar can stop you and your business in your tracks.

A previous article dealt with the issue of data protection. In this article we’re going to focus on other things you must consider in a disaster scenario. Whether you’re a big company with in-house experts and advisers or a small-business owner, you should just be as motivated to cover your ass in an emergency situation of any foreseeable sort.

Disaster Recovery and Prevention (DRP) prepares you to handle, recover and/or prevent work disruption, period.

For example, let’s pretend a sudden gas or chemical leak, or some virulent mold, prevents you from working in your office: Continue reading Disaster Recovery and Your Business →

You and Your Computer 4

Ergonomics, Series, ,

17 July 2008, by A. Cedilla

Part 4 of a series

The previous 3 parts in this series focused on software tips, websites and guidelines to taking care of yourself when you use the computer. This final installment deals with the particular needs of child users.

If you work at home and share your computer with your kids, or if each member of your family has a PC of their own, some special consideration is in order. Although, with the way some kids whizz through the basics and seem to master the use of the computer intuitively, you may ask, “Why? They’re better on the damn thing than I am!”

Remember:
Children’s hands are smaller. A mouse and keyboard for adult use may force kids to use their hands in awkward, stretched positions, stressing the developing muscles, bones and nerves. You can check for child-sized Little Fingers keyboards from Datadesk Technologies. Instead of using a regular mouse you can move to trackballs

Children are smaller. They may look cute with their feet dangling over the edge of your chair, but the pressure this places behind their knees can impede circulation. Get them a footrest. Giving them firm back support in the form of rolled-up pillows can also help alleviate added pressure on their backs.

Unless you teach them, they won’t know any better. Continue reading You and Your Computer 4 →

You and Your Computer 3

Ergonomics, Series, ,

16 July 2008, by A. Cedilla
Part 3 of a series

Sorehand is “an online community dedicated to sharing information about repetitive stress injuries and related topics for people with repetitive strain injuries (RSI’s). Sorehand members range from those severely injured to those who think they may be developing symptoms of an RSI, to the friends and families of those injured. Common topics include dealing with workers’ compensation and legal issues, suggestions on ergonomic equipment to use, and emotional/psychological/spiritual issues as they relate to RSI.”

The passage above was copied directly from Sorehand’s website (copied in 3 moves within 5 seconds. Neat,yes? )

  • Shift+Ctrl + Right Arrow to highlight,
  • Ctrl+C to copy
  • Then Ctrl+V to paste.

For those old enough to remember the time before photocopying machines existed, the only choice was manual copying or buying the book. With the advent of the Internet, now it’s usually a question of saving, bookmarking, scanning and/or converting. In any case, you generally use your hands to press the buttons or keys that set your chosen process in motion.

When it comes to computing, we use our eyes and hands the most. And it’s our hands and eyes that we strain the most. What follows are some tips, shortcuts and suggestions to keep your hands in optimal condition.
Continue reading You and Your Computer 3 →

You and Your Computer 2

Ergonomics, Series, , ,

13 July 2008, by A. Cedilla
Part 2 of a series

Pop quiz: Count yourself, your circle of family, friends and co-workers. How many of you spend significant time on your computers?

Done? Now, how many of you say anything about headaches, or dry eyes?

Research shows that roughly 70% of the people who work with computers have problems with their vision. That breaks down to 7 out of 10 people. Does this figure agree with your findings?

Computing is an overwhelmingly visual media and it’s because of this that so many people suffer from visual fatigue and computer vision syndrome . Most studies show that 70-90% of computer workers show symptoms of vision-related problems, bought on by a combination of poor workplace conditions individual visual problems, and improper work habits.

For example, in a normal setting people normally blink around 17-22 times per minute. On the computer, they slow down to 4 blinks a minute. The normal flow of tears that lubricate your eyeballs and wash out any possible irritant is compromised. Result: Dry, irritated “sandy” eyes.

And that’s not all! Continue reading You and Your Computer 2 →

You and Your Computer

Ergonomics, , ,

09 July 2008, by A. Cedilla

1 of a series

You hustle, endure the daily grind, work. Your data is safe, you had a little fun playing around inside your head with your plans for eventual world domination (even if it’s just a very small bit of the globe), and preen complacently as things move into the beautifully orchestrated flow you’ve always wished for, even if it just for now. You’re above petty worries of the moment.

Except you have a nagging headache and see little sparkly things the corner of your dry, sandy eyes.

Hurt anywhere else lately?
Continue reading You and Your Computer →

Mapping For Mental Clarity

Best Business Practices,

07 July 2008, by A. Cedilla

Keeping your mind fresh and your ideas original is a valuable edge in the competitive world of business. The daily grind of running a business, however, can leave you drained. If you ever played around with your ideas as a kid, using crayons and paper, to draw out your dreams and future, you may have done some mindmapping without knowing it.

 

A term popularized by Tony Buzan , mindmapping is basically doodling with a purpose. It’s a brainstorm on paper, a mental cyclone revolving around one central idea. While the term itself is new, the idea of it has been around for centuries.

 

Mindmapping can:

  • Clear your head by letting you generate and capture ideas you can see on paper, or pixel.
  • Help plot out possible futures, organizing ideas and passing thoughts that may be the seeds of something good
  • Plan your next move, or possible moves, depending on where you want to go
  • Play around towards a goal

Continue reading Mapping For Mental Clarity →

Data Storage Solutions

Best Business Practices,

02 July 2008, by A. Cedilla

Data management and protection is key to your business success, whether it involves your customer database, financial reports, inventory, trending analysis or company expansion plans. After all the effort to collect your information, insufficient or unsuitable storage can break your forward momentum and impede your business growth.

How and where you store it can protect this information gold-mine and give you some peace of mind. Aside from the basic CD , DVD or even tape-drives , currently there are two ways to do this:
– At-hand storage: fixed/internal (inside your computer) or portable/ external hard-drives
– On-line: off-site storage by another party

At-hand Storage
Magnetic hard-drive disks (HDD) have been the computing standard since the 1950’s when it comes to data storage, and it was only in the past few years that solid state drives (SSD) were introduced to the general public.

While you probably know about HDD’s, SSD’s are basically very high-capacity flash drives, giant cousins to the ubiquitous little thumb-sized widgets you see dangling from lanyards or keychains.

With no moving parts, SSD’s: Continue reading Data Storage Solutions →